Professor Malfoy
by serenitydragonGX
Summary: it just something i thought of one day. i dont like harry and lucius as enemies but some kind of tension is good.


'What had Dumbledore been thinking?' He thought yet again for …well, one of the very many times that he had thought the same thing during the past two weeks since the school started. What could the old man have been thinking to hire Lucius Malfoy of all people as the DADA professor? So what if the man needed protection from Voldemort? So what if he had never been a true Death-Eater? So what if he was a brave and honourable man who had risked his life, his family and his social standing in order to spy on a deranged maniac who could have killed him in an irrational fit of anger without a second thought? (Harry could have told you that the moment he met the man.) That was no reason to employ him at Hogwarts. There were many places he could have been taken and kept safe. Preferably, somewhere as far away from the impressionable young minds of Hogwarts' students and Harry as possible.

Like he needed another obnoxious Slytherin to deal with. Three were hard enough – four if you counted the Headmaster himself whom Harry was beginning to believe without a doubt had been a member of that house – why did another have to be added to his burden? The Headmaster he could handle, after all he only had to deal with him five times at the most during the entire school year, Snape and Draco had been a constant irritation since his first day, he cope and Voldemort… well he took comfort in the fact that his nemesis would be dead by the end of the year and by his hand no less. But, Lucius-Bloody-Malfoy? The man arrogant, infuriating…just being in the same room with him hackled Harry's nerves. It didn't help that he'd been given the position to teach his favourite subject.

Throughout his mental ranting the angry Boy-Who-Lived failed to notice he had began talking out loud. His friends watched him with expressions varying from annoyance, pity to irritation and amusement. Harry and the Malfoy patriarch had certainly not hit it off despite Lucius being one of the only three competent DADA tutor that they had ever had and it was proving to be entertaining, on Harry's part at least. The animosity between them had been growing since the Welcome Feast, and with Harry's hot temper combined with Lucius' stubble taunting things were bound to blow up, it had been just a matter of time. In fact many were surprised that he had held his own for two whole weeks considering how he had cracked during the first class with Umbrige.

So here he was mumbling and cursing under his breath in the middle of the Great Hall with the attention of his peers on him while viciously stabbing his food.

"Freaking smirk…more annoying than twinkling eyes." This caused chuckles all around for many people at one point were irritated by their headmaster's ever present twinkle. For something to be thought more annoying was quite a feat. The headmaster simply twinkled some more. "Strutting round…should...dump from Astronomy Tower." "Fake smiles… he's probably thinking of mutilating us during class." "'Miss Granger, thank you for such wonderful input.' 'Ah, Mr Thomas, how nice of you to join us.'" Everyone had to stifle their laughter at the accurate imitation of the noble man's way of speaking. "He doesn't even enjoy teaching. Voldemort would probably enjoy it more."

"Harry, Voldemort has been trying to kill you since you were a baby," reminded Ginny.

"He'd still be a better," Harry replied stubbornly. "Anyone would be…"

"Oh, honestly Harry," interrupted an exasperated Hermione. "Professor Malfoy is a great teacher."

Snort. "So was Lockhart."

"He's kind and helpful and…"

"Dances with fairies and kisses babies and ride unicorns during the full moon in the forest," finished Harry his voice laced with sarcasm.

With that many decided all attempts of holding their laughter.

"The man is only a lighter, straight nosed version of Snape."

"Professor Snape," snapped the more mature member of the Golden Trio while her boyfriend howled with laughter. "You don't even know him!"

"He's snarky and sarcastic, when he's not he is either smirking or sneering and if he's not doing that it's that annoying eyebrow thingy."

"'Arry are sure?" asked a cackling Ron. "I mean that sounds a lot like Snape."

"Exactly," he answered morosely. "At least Snape doesn't try to pretend to be anything but the git he is. How can you people be fooled by him anyway? He practically goes around baring his teeth at us."

Lucius snorted. He, 'the git' and his son had arrived during the 'Professor Malfoy is a great teacher.' comment. He had to admit hearing the boy lay into him was amusing even though he had to hold back his friend from attacking the boy. The only ones to see their entrance was the twinkling eyed headmaster, the normally stoic McGonagall who seemed to be caught between amusement and disciplining her student and of course the ever observant Slytherin House who, as if by some signal, smirked as one waiting for fireworks.

"It's called a smile," one of the Gryffindor girls said.

"Yeah, on a wild animal that's eyeing up a meal."

Severus smirked at him. "It seems the brat has the measure of you."

He snorted again. After their run in at Grimwald Place Potter had avoided him like a plague. It wasn't the fact that he had been mean and nasty to the boy that caused it but how instantaneously his demeanour and manner had changed when Molly Weasley had come upon hearing the sound of an argument. He had been his most charming and friendly to the matriarch to the point that she could almost have turned to mush. When he turned…he chuckled softly remembering

_Potter's mouth hung open as the stared at the spot Molly Weasley had been standing a moment before with something akin to horrified fascination. He shook his head slowly as if it would remove the image from his mind. When his eyes met Lucius' they held a mixture of revulsion, fear and awe. Slowly he backed down the passage, pointing at him with his mouth open in a silent scream. He ran back to his room, shut and locked the door for good measure._

"…monster. Comes here and thinks he can just change things."

"He didn't change anything!"

"Yes, he did. Malfoy hardly ever bugs us anymore."

"Ah, sweetie, that is considered a good thing."

"No, it's not. The teachers are starting to get mean again. We need stress relief, blowing up desks in abandoned classrooms only goes so far."

Everything seemed to freeze. It was so eerily silent one could hear crickets chirping in the background. Lucius could not believe what he'd just heard that from the Golden Boy.

"HARRY!" was the enraged cry from one Miss Granger while everyone else began desperately clinging to their companions as fits of laughter increased.

"What?" he asked, seemingly oblivious to the fault in his words. A small smile quirked his lips, "I mean, some of us are starting to show withdrawal symptoms. You didn't get woken up in the middle of the night by Ron jumping you screaming about 'bloody ferrets'."

"Hey!"

"So, that was why you were in Ron's bed last night plotting murder," one of the boys, Dean Thomas, said stifling his laugh.

"_It's alright Ron, we'll get Malfoy tomorrow."_ Neville said obviously imitating a sleepy Harry.

"_Damn ferret" _Seamus replied in a voice close to Ron's.

"_Yes, I have the perfect spell," had been Harry's encouragement in a sinister yet strangely soothing tone. "But tomorrow, just sleep now." _

"_Kill the ferret."_

Even Severus was having a hard time keeping a straight face. His son on the other hand looked like he wanted more than anything to relieve the Gryffindors' stress. Lucius felt one of his truer smiles spread across his face. The difference between this generation of Gryffindors and his was that even though they held the old prejudices they were not malicious in their humour. They might laugh at others' expense but they could laugh at themselves in the same breath making sure the other party was not hurt. He knew it had a lot to do with their Golden Trio, so unlike the Marauders who had once ruled the Golden House. A quick glance exchanged with his friend told him he was thinking the same thing. Some Slytherins were even laughing along, completely forgetting that their Professor who loved to take points off Potter.

"I thought we were discussing Professor Malfoy here," whined an embraced Ronald Weasley.

Potter's cheerful attitude disappeared. He shuddered hugging himself for comfort. "The man is evil." He stated it so grimly that Lucius almost applauded his acting skills. "There is not way anything so monstrous and horrifying could be anything but evil."

"Indeed," Lucius said moving the stand directly behind the boy. He heard a soft 'Oh, shit' from Longbottom and every one near began to scoot away. He of course gave them a pleasant smile which relaxed them.

"So much for Gryffindor loyalty," Draco snorted.

"That's Hufflepuff," Ginerva Weasley retorted before shooting an apologetic look at Potter however scooting further away.

"Mr Potter," he said in his most pleasant, almost pleading tone that he knew would just aggravate the boy. "I would appreciate it if you would look at me when we talk."

The boy tense then reluctantly rose to his feet having curtailed his rebellious instincts. He turned around and his face was level to his chest. Lucius knew this unbalanced his foe so he'd only stepped back to allow enough room for the boy to stand without falling back into the table but he still crowded the boy's smaller frame.

He seemed to fight himself on weather to look up or not. Harry hated everything about the position he was in. He was small the other man was bigger. He was short the other man was taller; he was face level with his chest for haven's sake. Where he was slim the other man was broader with more masculinity in his pinkie than he, Harry, possessed in his whole body. He had to look up and tilt his head just to see his face. 'Damn you, Dursleys!' he screamed silently as he did just that. Silver eyes filled with glee were looking down at him triumphant for his submission. He glared.

He wanted to jump up and down like a child receiving a present and cackle maniacally in celebration of his victory. But Malfoys did not indulge such impulses so he did neither. And really, it would have revealed him in front of the students. Inside he was doing all those things though and the boy knew if his glare was anything to go by. It was the most delightful thing he had ever seen; those emerald-green eyes filled with such hate, so much contempt.

"Now, Harry…" he began.

"Its Potter to you," the boy spat venomously.

"Of course, forgive my familiarity," he said in his most patronising manner, like he was merely humouring the other man by treating him with respect. "It pains me that we have not grown past our differences during the summer. However I can not allow you to speak so rudely of your teacher. Please join me for detention at 9p.m. this evening."

There was a dreamy sigh from one of the Hufflepuff girls. "He's even nice when giving out detentions."

'What an annoying chit,' Lucius thought, irritated.

Harry wanted to scream. How could anyone be fooled by such a pathetic act? The man before them was far from sweet and charming and probably spent half his time insulting them behind their backs. He knew he did. The Malfoy senior did not even bother to hide his true nature from Harry who had to hear nasty comments about most of them. The man made sure that when he was in the vicinity Harry saw and heard his contempt for his admirers and took pleasure in the fact that people would not believe him when he said anything bad about the man.

He just knew that if he were to try and protest he would just end up making a fool of himself. In school when the man had authority it was foolish to pick a fight, and Harry was anything but. "I'll see what I can do," he said making it sound as polite as he could through clenched teeth. He inclined his head ever so slightly; a perfect imitation of the older man. "Now if you'll excuse me I need to be somewhere." He smiled, a bright sunny smile that threatened to break his jaw then fluttered his eyes lashes in a much exaggerated manner. When Malfoy moved to make room for him he carefully moved around him making sure not to touch the man.

He could feel those eyes boring into the back of his skull. Any victory he garner from the situation felt hallow when what he truly wanted was to punch the man. But he still held himself tall until he was out of the Great Hall.

"Oh, Harry…"

"It's Pot…"

"You forgot your bag."

'I will not scream. I will not scream. I will not scream.'

His ears caught faint masculine laughter.

"Infuriating bastard!"

"Fifty points from Gryffindor, Mr Potter. You really should learn to respect your elders."

He screamed.


End file.
